JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4Jax is learning new details about the sordid allegations that led a Jacksonville Sheriff’s officer to resign in the wake of an internal investigation.
Officer Joseph LeGard resigned Thursday after Internal Affairs recommended his termination over an investigation that sustained, among other things, multiple complaints that he solicited prostitution, falsified records and misused police computer software.
Ultimately, the internal investigation determined that Officer LeGard traveled to multiple locations while on-duty to visit women when he was supposed to be on patrol.
The year-long investigation into LeGard’s behavior is detailed in an 85-page Internal Affairs report that outlines his behavior with five separate women. Two women told police that LeGard paid them for sex in encounters that supposedly place at a hotel and Northside apartment.
Even though the officer denied those allegations, he acknowledged that he brought two other women to the apartment. He said he watched one of those women perform a sex act during one of those visits, but he contended that the other woman’s visit to the apartment wasn’t sexual.
As part of their investigation, police spoke with a fifth woman who told them that LeGard repeatedly came by her place of work to flirt, which she found annoying. Investigators also found that the officer used a police database to look that woman up while he was off-duty.
Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Christian Hancock told News4Jax that prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges for LeGard, citing the low likelihood of a conviction.